Here in the 18th authorities anticipated trouble but as far as we could see, there was none. Instead, protests and violence in Paris occurred mostly in central Paris and was perpetrated primarily by white college-aged males. Interesting.

The night of the election was odd in a few ways:

Sarkozy's public celebration took place at Place de la Concorde, at one end of the Champs Elysees. From aerial and other TV views of the event, very, very few people attended.

One of the most important people to miss the Sarkozy victory celebration was...ummm... Sarkozy himself. Instead, he went to one of the expensive tourist trap restaurants on the Champs Elysees for dinner.

History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it.~ Mark Twain